A small contingent of Californians was on hand at San
Francisco's International Airport to meet and greet Alessia from Barolo.

Her plane from Newark on United Airlines was a mere three hours late, despite
having good weather on both the east and west coasts. The pilot decided
the plane needed a quart of oil and a tune-up, so they did not land until 10pm,
despite having a scheduled time of 6:50!

At sunset, there was even a welcome message in the sand at the beach in San
Francisco!

Miss Alessia finally was escorted from the plane by a United
Airlines official and she found the Sicard Family and me, sporting welcome signs
such as the one above with balloons.

Happily, they did not lose her luggage and we soon were off to a late dinner.

Periodic text messages and calls from Alessia's extremely nervous and worried
Mom were welcomed, but even more welcomed was a glass of cold water and some
good food.

We ventured to Burlingame to the Mokutanya restaurant.

The staff at Mokutanya had a table ready, knowing the famous Alessia Dallu was
to dine at their restaurant. Everyone took off their shoes and we were
seated in a glass booth with a table low to the ground.

We brought a couple of bottles for this meal, starting with a lovely Provencal
Rose from the Saint Pierre Sicard Estate.

Alessia is visiting California and staying with the Sicard
family.
She was delighted to meet Clementine especially.
Alessia, Clementine and part of Felix.

Our friend Alanna joined the party vicariously via her
I-Phone:

Having been offered nothing but the chance to buy a snack on the flight from
Newark, Alessia was delighted to see real food.

And Mokutanya offers fresh oysters for a buck a piece on Mondays and Tuesdays!
Skookums and Fanny Bay Oysters, the former from Washington and the latter from
farther north in Canada.

Fried Calamari

Baby Octopus

Alessia was amused by the notion of eating chopsticks...

But she figured out how to use these, mostly.

Kurobuta Sausages made of Berkshire Pork.
Very fine...mildly smoky and fairly intense.

The hour being rather late, Clementine multi-tasked by snoozing while having
dinner.

Here's her reaction to that snarky comment:

Everyone was thrilled by the Wagyu beef.
And we opened a bottle of Alessia's family's Dolcetto d'Alba.
This was a delightful combination!

We also had some surf to go with our turf...

Felix-San ordered some Ramen Noodles and Soup...

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus.

Chicken

Clementine ordered Japanese Risotto which was interesting to Alessia who asked
for the recipe.

At this point, if she wasn't totally wiped out when she landed after such a long
"day" of traveling, Alessia was certainly "toast" as the
clock struck midnight!

And now, with he luggage in the Sicard-Wagon, Alessia and her
California family drove down the road so she could snooze a few hours until it's
time for her "mani & pedi."